ith, "You lousy scoundrel, take them to
hell!--do you hear me?" "Have a care, your honor," answered the workman,
with quiet drollery, "don't you think now that if I took 'em to the
other place your honor would be less likely to fall over them?"

Thurlow's incivility to the solicitor reminds us of the cruel answer
given by another great lawyer to a country attorney, who, through fussy
anxiety for a client's interests, committed a grave breach of
professional etiquette. Let this attorney be called Mr. Smith, and let
it be known that Mr. Smith, having come up to London from a secluded
district of a remote country, was present at a consultation of
counsellors learned in the law upon his client's cause. At this
interview, the leading counsel in the cause, the Attorney General of the
time, was present and delivered his final opinion with characteristic
clearness and precision. The consultation over, the country attorney
retreated to the Hummums Hotel, Covent Garden, and, instead of sleeping
over the statements made at the conference, passed a wretched and
wakeful night, harassed by distressing fears, and agitated by a
conviction that the Attorney General had overlooked the most important
point of the case. Early next day, Mr. Smith, without appointment, was
at the great counsellor's chambers, and by vehement importunity, as well
as a liberal donation to the clerk, succeeded in forcing his way to the
advocate's presence. "Well, Mis-ter Smith," observed the Attorney
General to his visitor, turning away from one of his devilling juniors,
who chanced to be closeted with him at the moment of the intrusion,
"what may you want to say? Be quick, for I am pressed for time."
Notwithstanding the urgency of his engagements, he spoke with a slowness
which, no less than the suspicious rattle of his voice, indicated the
fervor of displeasure. "Sir Causticus Witherett, I trust you will excuse
my troubling you; but, sir, after our yesterday's interview, I went to
my hotel, the Hummums, in Covent Garden, and have spent the evening and
all night turning over my client's case in my mind, and the more I turn
the matter over in my mind, the more reason I see to fear that you have
not given one point due consideration." A pause, during which Sir
Causticus steadily eyed his visitor, who began to feel strangely
embarrassed under the searching scrutiny: and then--"State the point,
Mis-ter Smith, but be brief." Having heard the point stated, Sir
Causti